The Uralla Shire Business Chamber’s fourth annual awards for excellence was held Friday 29th July at the Showgrounds. The Pavilion looked lovely on the evening, thanks to the team and the Pavilion committee for making it look its best.
Despite being one of the coldest evenings of the year so far, a good crowd came out and enjoyed the evening which went very smoothly. We all enjoyed catching up with friends whilst sharing a fine meal laid on by Michael from Michael’s Café and Catering and enjoying great music from Crooked Tree from Armidale.
Thank you to Corinne and her team for making the awards come together so successfully!
The evening opened at 6.30pm with a complimentary drink on arrival and canapes and then we sat down for a delicious service of dinner. The formal part of the evening started at 7pm, opened by the Chamber’s President, David Mailler.
David introduced Adam Marshall MP, member for Northern Tablelands, who voiced his obvious pride in our lovely Shire of Uralla with his glowing words singing our praises. We were then very fortunate to have the experience of listening to our guest speaker, LCDR Rob Valler from the RAN, who is the Aide de camp to Her Excellency, the Governor of NSW as he spoke about his passion for Uralla and why he chooses to live and operate a business here and the connections he has made to our community.
One of our three independent judges, Derek Tink, from Business Connect NSW, spoke on the high standard of entries from the people and businesses nominated by their customers and the people of Uralla and in particular the standard of excellence from the youth – the trainees and apprentices who were nominated were outstanding.
Nominations for the awards were received from far and wide, with each nominee invited to answer some questions about themselves or their organisation. These were then sent to three independent judges, not part of the Uralla community, and ranked and returned to one member of the awards committee, who then collated and calculated the final scores. The results were then scrutineered by another independent member of the Chamber. Results were based on the quality of the responses to the set of questions in each category.
The six categories were:

	Outstanding Employee, Trainee or Apprentice. Award presented by Laura Abbott, Green Light Elecnor, Platinum Sponsor. The finalists were Susan McPhee, Stephanie Wooldridge and Abby Taylor, Susan McPhee from Uralla Clinic being awarded the winner for her incredibly impressive involvement in the clinic as well as the broader community.
Employer of Choice, presented by Kate Adams, Regional Australia Bank, Gold Sponsor. The Finalists were NGC New England, Subway Uralla and Uralla Pharmacy, Amica Riley and Subway Uralla being awarded the winner for demonstrating a commitment to training and support of her workers and her trust and respect of her workers shining through to the judges.
	Excellence in Sustainability or Innovation award, presented by Mayor Robert Bell. The finalists were Buckingham’s Timepiece Repairs, Defence Models and Graphics and Uralla Clinic, with Uralla Clinic being awarded the winner with glowing words from the judges, about their commitment to excellence in service, information and improving their practices that benefit the community and shows their passion for what they do.
Outstanding Community Organisation, presented by Laura and Kirsty, Green Light Elecnor, Platinum Sponsor. The finalists were McMaugh Gardens Aged Care Centre, Uralla Community Co-Operative and Uralla Historical Society with a delighted and surprised Linda Bell accepting the award for the Uralla Community Co-operative, for their new and creative approach to circular economy by generating community and giving back to community through profits.
	Outstanding Business Leader award was presented by Adam Marshall MP, Member for Northern Tablelands. The finalists were Rob Moon from Moons Bakery, Adam Hayes from The Pie Mechanic and Selina Ryan from Pulse Fitness, who unfortunately wasn’t with us on the evening, a comparably fit and trim Tom O’Connor (in Adam’s words!), accepted the award on Selina’s behalf. The award was given to Selina for creating a new business contributing to health and wellbeing and creating a new concept with a five year vision for the future in Uralla.
The Final award Excellence in Business, was presented by our guest speaker Rob Valler. The finalists for this award were The Alternate Root, Meralli Solar and Uralla Clinic. The winner was the Chambers very surprised president, David Mailler from Meralli Solar for their World-leading technology in producing low-cost high-technology and high-return solar farms that give back to the communities that they are part of, employing locals and injecting millions into local economies while taking out thousands of tons of carbon dioxide, a great achievement in these times.

The Uralla Business Chamber would like to say Thank you to the Awards Committee for making the awards come together so successfully. We would also like to show our appreciation for the businesses and public of Uralla who made this the most successful awards night to date. Thank you also to the speakers, partners, and families and friends of all the nominees, finalists and winners, to all the businesses who participated in the awards process and to the businesses and individuals themselves who won the awards for your terrific contributions in making Uralla the best place to live, work and grow in. See you all again next year!

 

 

If you wish to join the Uralla Shire Business Chamber go to our website; www.urallabusinesschamber.org.au
New Members welcome, let’s grow Uralla together!
Monthly Meeting 1st Thursday of the Month Uralla Bowling Club.
secretary(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)urallabusinesschamber.org.au

Gallery for 2022